I wasn't in my own back yard, but I was in the back garden of my local pub earlier and it's only a few hundred metres from my own non-existent back yard, so it will have to do.

Again, I was mostly trying to photograph birds, which tend to move too quickly or sit in bushes which get blown about by wind. But in amongst my fine collection of photographs of places where birds were sitting about half a second ago, I got a few that were OK.

There was a robin flitting about - I think she was feeding her young, as she was looking tired and bedraggled, and I also saw a glossy, plump young robin sitting on the fence at one point. I've seen her before in the garden and she's fairly tame, but today I was the only person in the whole place so she was hopping about my feet and on my table to peck up the crumbs from my lunch. (Puff pastry from a chicken slice - I'm sure that's not good for robins). I couldn't photograph her on the table, but I got a few which were OK, in most of which she's looking at me quizzically as if to ask what I'm doing photographing her:

(I've decided she's female based partly on the fact that there were young nearby - although I think robins share that sort of thing - and partly that the red on her breast doesn't extend as far down as it might on a male. Other than that, male and female robins are pretty similar. She might well actually be male.)

There were also goldfinches around the place - the only clear picture I managed to get is this one singing on a TV aerial, but the silly thing got in its own light and isn't doing itself justice:

There were various insects buzzing about too - honey bees, a little black thing like a large thunderbug - but those also move quickly. I did get one of a handsome, shiny green fly:

Other than that I was mostly concentrating on enjoying the sun, drinking my beer and reading my book... if I'd been crawling around trying to get proper photos I might have done better; I was the only person out there for most of the time I was there so I could have done. But I was enjoying the sun and beer and book too much...

(There is a wood pigeon in the background as well, to keep it on topic and hence the awkward angle...)

While I was looking through my pictures I discovered that one I'd tried to take of the robin a few days ago, in worse light, that I'd thought I could add to the "A Robin Used To Be Here" section, had actually just caught her flying off the post... not a very good picture but I thought it was funny anyway!

Sorry for the long post and lots of photos, but I had a nice afternoon anyway. Unemployment is great as long as you can afford beer... (PS don't tell the Tories that).

Some great pictures there, Richard W. I particularly like the robins checking you out (or at least the crumbs of your chicken slice). And with regard to the "Robin Used To Be Here" picture, I have many pictures of bushes, trees, lawns and such because of the photo-shy behaviour of some animal or bird.

Thanks! And I've changed my mind about the sex of the robin. I hadn't noticed in reality, but in the pictures it has a definite scar on the left side of its beak (right side in the photos) which I reckon is a fighting wound. It's the males that are territorial, so on that basis, perhaps it's male and is checking me out to see if I want to fight as well...

I noticed that some of the rainbow lorikeets that were visiting my backyard seemed hesitant to eat the birdseed I put out at ground level and would stay up in the trees so I hung a seed block from the rotary clothes line. Seems like they liked that a lot more:

But it turns out that the night crew also liked it!

The seed block had only been nibbled slightly yesterday but it completely disappeared overnight, it looks like the ringtail possums really liked it.

When I was in my backyard earlier this evening this flock of bushtits (who decided to name this bird by putting together two slang words for parts of a woman's body?) flew in and started foraging in the bushes. This little guy in the rosebush held still long enough for a picture. Teeny tiny birds, not much bigger than a hummingbird.

And when I was copying the picture of that bird, I found this picture of a western scrub jay on my memory card that I took a few months back. At the time I heard a couple of jays outside screeching loudly, and looked out the window to see them chasing away a much larger bird. I think it might have been a hawk, but I didn't get a good enough look at it. I got my camera to try to get a picture of the hawk (?) but it had left, so I got a picture of one of the jays as a consolation photo.

I've been feeding the birds in my backyard and the native trees are starting to flower which brings in even more birds so it's a regular zoo out there right now with all sorts of warbling and tweeting and squawking all day long.

I just peeped out the back window to see what birds were around and ... uh ...

Those aren't birds!! But they sure love the birdseed I've been spreading on the ground.

This is my designated magpie. Well, to be more accurate, I'm this magpie's designated human. It periodically perches at the top of the tree in my neighbour's yard where it has a full view of my backyard so it can watch what I'm doing. If it sees me putting out food it alerts all the other magpies and the whole tribe rush over.

I wasn't really planning on anthropomorphising the magpies that visit my backyard and giving them names but now that I can recognise some of them on sight .... here's 202 and Taily.

202 has a band on its leg that says 202, Taily doesn't have a tail. Really creative names there.

Taily is also the only magpie who'll take food from my hand right now. I'm guessing that it might not be able to fly so well without a tail so it might have trouble catching bugs and stuff on its own which would make it particularly hungry, although they're all greedy beggars.